Lecture: The Life and Work of William Blake

I´m giving a talk about William Blake on Friday 20 September. William Blake is one of the most interesting and influential British poets and artists. He is a forerunner of the Romantic era, a visionary, and held revolutionary views about society, human nature, perception and art.

I´m going to talk about the main events in his life, a little about his personality and discuss a selection of his poems, illustrations and paintings. I will handle these topics at a fairly general level but I hope to be able to give a clear impression of his ideas, beliefs and philosophy and to show how these are apparent in his writing and artwork. and I will have to select examples from his work, of course, because there won´t be time to go into detail. The talk will last about an hour and I hope there will be time for questions afterwards.


And now you want to know where this is going to happen. Here are the details in full:

Friday 20.9 at 18.30 in Tampere main library (Metso), we will be in the upstairs lecture room which is called Pietilä-sali. The talk will be in English. It is organised by the Tampere branch of the Finnish-British society. It is free and all members of the public are welcome.

If you´re in or near Tampere on the 20th September, drop in. I look forward to seeing you there.

Poetry reading at Arkadia Bookshop in Helsinki

This is some advance information for anyone who will be within striking distance of Helsinki in mid-October. I´m reading at the Arkadia Bookshop in Helsinki on Tuesday 15 October (not sure about the exact time yet, but definitely in the evening). The program is titled, `Four Brits and a Finn´, and I´m one of the Brits, but the only Englishman; the other three are Scots. The Arkadia Bookshop has a very attractive website:

http://www.arkadiabookshop.fi/

The poetry event is not listed there yet but I imagine full details will be posted closer to the time. I will also post full details, including names and information about the other poets reading and confirmation of the time, here on my blog in good time. Arkadia offers a lovely environment for a poetry reading, plus the opportunity to browse and buy books at bargain prices so I have a strong suspicion that this is an event not to be missed.